Paul Kroegel (January 9, 18641948) was a German immigrant to the United States who helped establish Pelican Island as a bird sanctuary in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

.Paul Kroegel
/ref>
/ref> Kroegel is listed as a

Great Floridian Great Floridian is a title bestowed upon citizens in the state of Florida by the Florida Department of State. There were actually two formal programs. The Great Floridian 2000 program honored deceased individuals who made "significant contribution ...

. Kroegel was born in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. He arrived in

Sebastian, Florida Sebastian is a city in Indian River County, Florida, United States at the confluence of the St. Sebastian River and the Indian River. It is two miles away from the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest city in Indian River County and the biggest pop ...

in 1881 and homesteaded with his brother, Arthur, and their father Gottlieb Kroegel, on a shell

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

on the west bank of the Indian River Lagoon overlooking Pelican Island. The island consisted of a five-acres of mangrove where thousands of brown pelicans and other water birds would roost and nest. Kroegel protected the island's avian inhabitants with his shotgun and would stand guard at a time when neither state nor federal laws protected the animals. Influential naturalists visited and stayed at the nearby Oak Lodge from the 1880s to the early 1900s, including

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Frank Chapman (ornithologist) Frank Michler Chapman (June 12, 1864 – November 15, 1945) was an American ornithologist and pioneering writer of field guides. Biography Chapman was born in West Englewood, New Jersey and attended Englewood Academy. He joined the staff of ...

(curator at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

in New York. In 1901, the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

and the Florida

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

led efforts to pass legislation in Florida calling for the protection of non-game birds. Kroegel was one of four wardens hired by the Florida Audubon Society to protect water birds from market hunters. Two of the wardens were murdered doing this work. Additional protections were granted by president

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

who signed an executive order on 14 March 1903, establishing Pelican Island as the first federal bird reservation, part of a network of 55 bird reservation and national game preserved for wildlife that were forerunners to the national wildlife refuge system. Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager until 1926. He was paid $1 per month by the Audubon Society, as Congress had not made financial provisions for the refuge. He was a founding member of the St. Lucie County Board of Commissioners in 1905. He died in Sebastian, Florida in 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroegel, Paul 1864 births 1948 deaths American conservationists County commissioners in Florida Florida settlers German emigrants to the United States People from Chemnitz People from Sebastian, Florida